From IMDb: A pretty Chinese woman, seeking help from San Francisco detective James Lee Wong, is killed by a poisoned dart in his front hall, having time only to scrawl "Captain J" on a sheet of paper. She proves to be Princess Lin Hwa, on a secret military mission for Chinese forces fighting the Japanese invasion. Mr. Wong finds two captains with the intial J in the case, neither being quite what he seems; there's fog on the waterfront and someone still has that poison-dart gun...

Stars: Boris Karloff, Marjorie Reynolds and Grant Withers

The Mr. Wong series of films

Mr. Wong, Detective
The Mystery of Mr. Wong
Mr. Wong in Chinatown
The Fatal Hour
Doomed to Die
Phantom of Chinatown


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: William Nigh
Production Company: Monogram Pictures Corporation
Audio/Visual: Mono, Black & White
Language: English
Keywords: mystery; murder; crime; Karloff; Mr. Wong

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: jonfrum - - March 4, 2011
Subject: Trivia time!
In which Charlie Chan movie does a Chinese woman come to the Chan home to see Charlie, get murdered, and leave a note with only "Captain K" scrawled on it? Identical plotting to this movie.

Reviewer: accalaurie49 - - August 20, 2010
Subject: Brilliant Karloff
I absolutely love his performance as mr. Wong in this series. Always staying calm, always showing that he is a superior mind but with so much understatement! Of course, although the make-up-artists did everything to make his face look asian mr. Karloff still looks like a european guy in disguise, but that is the same with every european actor (take the several Charlie Chan actors) in the time and maybe ever (or does Peter Sellers playing Fu Manchu look very asian?).

Grant Withers as his short tempered policeman friend who doesn´t understand anything also has to be mentioned. He plays this figure not as a simpleton but as a normally clever enough policeman who wants to do effective work and is not amused about cases which aslk too much of his sleuthing abilities.

Reviewer: earplay - - September 14, 2009
Subject: Mort stalks the Princess
By "Mort", I mean "le petit mort", if you know what I mean.

Watch her face as she dies. I believe we get a very personal insight. Wheeee!

Extra star for her death scene.

Reviewer: matt1900 - - December 26, 2008
Subject: very entertainig
Mr. Wong in Chinatown. This is the first time I have seen Boris Karloff playing the Chinese detective Mr. Wong and it comes across as a very good performance. Highly entertaining mystery story. I would recommend it to everyone.

Reviewer: quigs - - December 23, 2008
Subject: wong is right drpsonic is wrong
He played the oriental sleuth five times: Mr Wong, detective, the mystery of Mr Wong, Mr Wong in Chinatown, The Fatal Hour and Doomed to Die. The series was dumped when the Chan Mysteries came over from 20th Cent. Fox starring Sydney Toler.

Reviewer: drpsionic - - December 20, 2008
Subject: Boris is brilliant
Boris Karloff played a Chinese character six times, Detective Wong in the series four times, Fu Manchu in The Mask of Fu Manchu and General Fang in West of Shanghai and each performance was perfect.